Loew's 83rd Street Quad

2300 Broadway,

New York,
NY10024

Saw many films at this theatre before it closed as, it stayed open a few months after 84th Street 6 opened and closed before June 1985. The last film I saw at this theatre was Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

I was the last assistant manager at this theatre, splitting my time between the 83rd and the newly built 84th next door. The theatre seemed to know it was in it’s last days, as it seemingly just started to deteriorate on it’s own. A big patch of the ceiling plaster fell during a matinee in house 3 (lower level left), pipes started leaking, a strange smell developed, etc.

The employees had two locker room areas. The men were upstairs off the men’s room and the women were behind the screen in house 4 (lower right lobby). I had never gone back there. One day, during the final week of operation, I decided to explore and, armed with nothing more than my standard-issue Loew’s employee flashlight, I ventured behind the screen, curious as to what was actually back there.

Needless to say, I was floored. Bear in mind that I had started as an usher at this theatre in ‘84, fresh off the bus from KY, and had no idea what it’s past had been. I can indeed vouch that the boxes were gone but their structural imprints were still still visible. The stage, proscenium, and fly system were also intact. Don’t remember the piano, though. I went on to explore the dressing room floors. There was little to no light in this area, I was so scared! LOL They were pretty much empty, barely even being used for storage. (I found an old office desk in one of the rooms on the second floor, which eventually make its way back to my apartment on 85th St.)

The theatre remained open for the first couple of weeks after the 84th opened. We were supposed to close on a Thursday, but for some reason a decision was made to stay open through the weekend. I was told in an off-hand manner, but nobody bothered to tell the operator! I had no idea that he was a no-show until one of the six people who had showed up for a matinee of GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN came out to inquire…20 minutes after the movie should have started.

Anyway, I was there for the last day and I don’t remember a thing about it. The doors were locked and I continued on at the 84th, which had a very bumpy first several weeks due to to all sorts of electrical glitches.

This was first cut up int a “triplex”, the a quad. The seats were never re-angled, left in their original single screen position so you always sat at a slight angle from the screen. Until it was cut up into a quad you had a view of the intact auditorium and it’s box seats from the balcony. Just before it was torn down I was fortuanate enough to get a tour of the remains on the orchestra section and the stage. Everything in front of the wall they had put into make it a quad was intact. Sadly, however the boxes had been removed. The Pin rail was intact as was a white grand piano sitting in the middle of the stage. There were 4 or 5 floors of dressing rooms that I do not remember why I did not explore.

I saw The 7th Voyage of Sinbad here. I LOVED this theatre. It had a grand rotunda, and was quite ornate inside. I got my first taste of Turkish Taffy ( the little ones in the bag) here and Bob-Bons! MMMMmmm

There was a matron with a flashlight who used to make SURE that the kids sat in the kids section..OR ELSE!

This was a theater which very much followed the fortunes of its neighborhood. A gorgeous ornate old palace (I likely saw Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs her in 1961 as a capricious 4 year old) it became a second run and grind house for Loews as the neighborhood faded in the 60s ( I may have seen Lawrence of Arabia here as a revival in the late 60s and if you believe I caught Joe Namath in the spaghetti western The Last Rebel in those days). Loews made into the 83rd St Quad in 1975 (only Manhattans second Quad in those days – I saw Shampoo in half the balcony before the job was completed). As the neighborhood sorted itself out it started taking a number of first runs before being replaced with Loews 84th Street Six one block over.